C. Difficile And Antibiotics Not Necessarily Linked, Study Finds

The key point in this article is that the author shows a connection between Community Acquired clostridium difficile infections & lack of antimicrobial use. For example, the widespread use of ant-acids ie; proton pump inhibitors. This article is helpful because delineating some of the risk factors may help curb this deadly disease. However, make no mistake there is a very clear link...

The headline is misleading. C. Dif. diarrhea is well established consequence of antibiotics induced imbalance in the colon. The cited study did not disprove that. What the study actually showed that C. Dif. diarrhea can be also induced by other, unknown so far, factors as well as by antibiotics.

C. difficile is only linked to antibiotic use about half the time.  In addition c. difficile can complicate IBS more that previously thought.  This may be why antibiotics that cover c. difficile have been useful in treating irritable bowel syndrome.  

This study did not conclude that antibiotic use does not precipitate C. difficile infections.  What it found was that the individuals who are infected with C. diff did not necessarily take antibiotics in the six weeks preceding their infection.  In my mind, rather than demonstrating that C. diff is not necessarily antibiotic-related, it suggests two things that we sort of already knew: 1)...